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Bobcat Fever in Tennessee

There’s an easy Ted Nugent intro to this tale of infectious disease, but I won’t be going there.

Instead, I’ll share my dismay at how the Nashville Predators – the best team in the regular season – went down to the Winnipeg Jets in round 2 of the National Hockey League playoffs.

Mikayla Lewis of Fox 17 reports several veterinarians and pet owners in mid-area Tennessee, especially around Nashville, are reporting cases of Bobcat Fever. The disease is carried from bobcats to domestic cats through ticks.

Experts say Cytauxzoon felis (commonly known as Bobcat Fever) is a parasite that gets into the bloodstream. It’s so aggressive even with treatment, the mortality rate is 60 percent.

“Samson was definitely one of our family members, our whole community knew him,” says Jenny Hammer.

But the Nashville cat owner noticed last Sunday, her two-year-old cat was squinting and becoming more lethargic.

Hammer explains, “I kept a close eye on him and he seemed to go back and forth, that was the tricky part. He seemed to be okay and then not okay. By Tuesday night he seemed bad, he was roaming around his food bowl, unable to eat…which is a sign.”

Hammer took Samson in to the local veterinarian on Wednesday, where she discovered he had the same disease her sister’s cat had died from previously.

It begins to shut down all their organs and it’s super painful, ” Hammer says her vet, “He said Samson definitely has Bobcat Fever and he said the most shocking part was that he had the Seresto collar on. “